History VideoGame / Monark

''Monark'' is a tactical JRPG developed by Lancarse Studios and published by [=FuRyu=] and [[Creator/NipponIchi NIS America]]. The game released on October 14th, 2021 in Japan and on February 22nd, 2022 in the West for UsefulNotes/Playstation4, UsefulNotes/Playstation5, UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch and {{UsefulNotes/Steam}}. A free demo of the game was released on January 25, 2022, which consists of the entire first chapter of the game.

[[caption-width-right:350:Prove that you live by your own rules. [[note]]From left to right: [[TheGunslinger Ryotaro]], [[TheAce Shinya]], [[TheProtagonist the Vice President]], [[BrilliantButLazy Kokoro]], [[ThePaladin Nozomi]][[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Prove that you live by your own rules]]

Notably, the game garnered immediate interest from fans as Suzuki Kazunari and Masuko Tsukasa, the scenerist of ''VideoGame/MegamiTensei'' and ''VideoGame/MegamiTenseiII'', ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei'' and ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII'' and the composer of numerous 80s Namco titles (among which was ''Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei'') respectively are part of the game's development. The developers state that the game was primarily inspired by ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIf'', which similarly led to to the creation of its SpiritualSuccessor ''{{Franchise/Persona}}''. The artwork of the game is done by So Bin.

-->'''Sora''': You're special. You realized something was off, didn't you? [[spoiler:There's no Mist associated with you.]]

-->'''Ryotaro:''' If this [[spoiler:god]] really is here, why don't you tell it to show up already?\\

* WhamLine: In Act 2, Sora's discussion with the Vice-President and their chosen partner reveals a rather curious bit about the Vice-President.

* WhamEpisode: "Recurring Twilight", and following it, "Intermission: Dusk". [[spoiler:Not only is Kakeru, the school doctor, revealed to be a Pactbearer himself, but he reveals the existence of a ninth Pactbearer; Sora Jingu, whose Essokinesis is keeping the Barrier up. The Intermission ramps it up further with the TSC being formally disbanded by Sora, the members going their separate ways, and Chiyo dying after being dragged into the Otherworld as a result of the intensified distortions in the academy.]]

Notably, the game garnered immediate interest from fans as Suzuki Kazunari and Masuko Tsukasa, the scenerist of ''VideoGame/MegamiTensei'' and ''VideoGame/MegamiTenseiII'', ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei'' and ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII'' and the composer of numerous 80s Namco titles (among which was ''Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei'') respectively are part of the game's development. The developers state that the game was primarily inspired by ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIf'', which similarly led to to the creation of its SpiritualSuccessor ''{{Franchise/Persona}}''. The artwork of the game is done by Creator/SoBin.

Notably, the game garnered immediate interest from fans as Suzuki Kazunari and Masuko Tsukasa, the scenerist of ''VideoGame/MegamiTensei'' and ''VideoGame/MegamiTenseiII'', ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei'' and ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII'' and the composer of numerous 80s Namco titles (among which was ''Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei'') respectively are part of the game's development. The developers state that the game was primarily inspired by ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIf'', which similarly led to to the creation of its SpiritualSuccessor ''{{Franchise/Persona}}''. The artwork of the game is done by So-bin, who is known for his illustrations for the ''[[LightNovel/Overlord2012 Overlord]]'' light novel series.

* AcademyOfAdventure: Albeit not by choice, as the school was cut off from the outside world and is surrounded by the Mist that drives the students mad. [[spoiler:Certain routes, however, reveal that Shin Mikado accepted students who had the highest potential of becoming Pactbearers and eliminating those that do succeed in making a pact.]]

** After Intermission: Dusk, you need to [[spoiler:convince one of the four former members of the TSC to ally with you.]] You have to speak to them and choosing a wrong answer that disappoints or angers them will reset the dialog. However, the game puts check marks on what options ''have'' worked in the past and there's only a 50-50 chance you'll get it wrong, just blindly picking.

* ButThouMust: The game offers up choices from time to time, where you have to select one to proceed. However, oftentimes, there will only be 1 choice as doing anything else would prevent you from proceeding in the game, such as when Kurama uses his Authority on the Vice-President and orders him to capture Nozomi. There are three dialogue options, all of which are "No."

* DrivenToMadness: The Unsettled are students who have stayed in the Mist for varying periods of time. Exactly ''how'' insane they've been driven vary, but to give you an example of how seriously it fucked up the students, a teacher and a group of students ''jump off the roof'' as part of their "graduation ceremony".

* ElaborateUniversityHigh: Shin Mikado is a ''very'' rich, prestigious academic institution, with no less than 3 multi-floor buildings for the 3 years of Japanese high school, a massive club building and sports facilities for extra-curricular activities, a library with the largest collection of books in the country, a massive memorial garden with a now-defunct dormitory that used to be used for students outside of the city, and middle school facilities, though the last one is never explored in the game. Documents about the academy says that the school relies on generous support and donations from its alumni, among which are countless powerful businessmen and politicians. [[spoiler:It's also an AcademyOfAdventure, albeit with a sinister twist: If any student is discovered as having a powerful Ego with knowledge of the Otherworld, they'll be potentially murdered to prevent them from becoming a Pactbearer. Those that do are killed on the spot.]]

* LimitBreak: "Enlightenment" gives characters a massive stat boosts and zero skill cost, making them extraordinarily powerful and useful in a pinch. Achieving this requires you to keep careful management of your Resolve and MAD gauges and maxing both out, either by entering Madness and taking enough damage for your Resolve gauge to max out or abuse the Vice-President's resonance ability and achieve Enlightenment easily.

* ShooOutTheClowns: Act 2 is kicked off by [[spoiler:Chiyo's death and Sora disbanding the True Student Council]]. After that, what little humor is in the story is as good as gone.

* BittersweetEnding: "Dark Abundance" and "Unhinged Darkness" end this way. [[spoiler:Shinya and Nozomi's routes end with most of the students making it out alive and no worse for wear, but both are left traumatized by the Vice-President's death and their inability to save him. It's worse for Shinya since his Act 3 route starts with Yoru killing Sora and Yugo, leaving him an orphan.]]

* BrilliantButLazy: Those of the Sloth Authority tend to be highly intelligent, analytical, and have an impeccable sense of strategy... which they use to defeat their opponents in the fastest way possible with the least amount of moves, because they don't want to spend any more energy or time than strictly necessary. In-game, this is represented by their having high critical and evasion chance.
* ButThouMust: The game offers up choices from time to time, where you have to select one to proceed. However, oftentimes, there will only be 1 choice as doing anything else would prevent you from proceeding in the game, from an in-universe standpoint, or three different opportunities to say "No".
* CastFromHitPoints: Arts (physical attacks) are cast from your HP.
* CastFromSanity: Authorities (magic spells) oftentimes raise your character's Madness, putting them at risk of going into a SuperpoweredEvilSide and attacking friend and foe alike indiscriminately.

* DevelopersForesight: Since Act 1's Pactbearers can be tackled in any order, the difficulty will scale in accordance to whatever order you face them. The first Pactbearer you fight after Kurama will be the weakest while the last one you need to deal with will be significantly higher than if you went after them first. [[spoiler:This also applies in Acts 2 and 3, outside of the "Deepest Depths" Chapter.]]
* DownerEnding: The [[spoiler:TSC Pactbearer]] routes do not end happily. [[spoiler:While Sora is defeated, her breakdown causes her to either absorb or kill the students in Shin Mikado, leaving hardly ''anyone'' left in her wake. "Birth of a New World" is easily the most gut-wrenching, the Vice-President ends up TakingTheBullet for her after they've defeated Sora, and he disappears before Kokoro can finish giving him an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove. Worse still, [[KarmaHoudini Yoru]] is still out there and is free to do what she wishes now that the Barrier is gone.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: And ''holy shit'' do you have to work for it. [[spoiler:The entire second act of the game involves the Vice-President dying in each of the TSC members' routes, and in two of them, almost the entire student body and faculty are killed in the wake of Sora's rampage. It's only thanks to Kakeru rewinding time after each route that the Vice-President can cultivate his Animakinesis and restoring everyone's memories of their respective routes that the TSC is reformed and search for a way for the Vice-President to continue existing without Yoru.]] And if you want to make the ending sweeter, [[spoiler:be prepared to fight all nine Monarks at their strongest and round 2 with the FinalBoss with only your Fiends as your back-up. Defeating Yog-Sothoth a second time will let net you one more wish, which you can use for a BraggingRightsReward or revive either Kakeru or Sora Jingu]].

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Thanks to the Vice-President having no CanonName, players can name him however they want, which confuses Nozomi since he and Chiyo have different family names. She still says this even if players have the player's family name be the same as Chiyo's.

** Want to challenge the FinalBoss again [[spoiler:so you can revive Kakeru]]? Get ready to start dialing random Abyss numbers, because the only way you're getting the Signs needed to reach the BrutalBonusLevel is by battling and winning Abyss battles. While this is already a challenge as you're fighting enemies at max Level, there's also the fact that the Abyss battles change depending on the last digit you input, and even if you win, there's no real guarantee you'll get the phone number need. You also can't brute force your way to challenging the FinalBoss again by looking at somebody else's walkthrough [[spoiler:because the Sign you get is unique to your playthrough]].

* LimitBreak: "Enlightenment" gives characters a massive stat boosts and zero skill cost, making them extraordinarily powerful and useful in a pinch. Achieving this requires you to keep careful management of your Resolve and Madness gauges and maxing both out.

* SanityMeter: The Madness gauge. Using certain skills increases the gauge and boosts your abilities, but if it hits max, the characters will go berserk and cannot be controlled. The exception would be reaching both 100% Resolve ''and'' Madness at the same time will give you access to "Enlightenment", giving you the stat boosts of Madness ''and'' Resolve and the zero skill costs at no loss of control. Good luck managing them both and keeping one from spilling over prematurely, though!
* SevenDeadlySins: The main antagonists of the game are the seven Daemons known as the Monarks, each of whom are in a pact with someone in Shin Mikado and bestow upon them an Authority correlating to one of the seven sins. The Vice-President's sin, Vanity, is noted by Sora to be an aberrant, although it is associated with the deadly sin of {{Pride}}.

* TimeyWimeyBall: [[spoiler:Shin Mikado turns out to be in a repeating time loop, starting just after the barrier went up and usually ending once the Pactbearers have either destroyed themselves or wreaked too much havoc, thanks to the Pactbearer of Greed and their TimeMaster powers. Yoru alludes to them having been repeating these same few days for a ''long'' series of loops, and another character implies this is happened over ''seventy times''. Unintentionally, it also reverses much of the chaos and murder of the first four Pactbearers did and leaves them and their victims in much better states. The time loops also continue four more times due to Kakeru using his last Ideal to rewind time so to give the Vice-President the time he needs to bring out the Authority of Vanity's true potential.]]

** The Pactbearer of Wrath arc involves the titular Pactbearer being the victim of a vicious bullying campaign who made a pact with a Monark to get revenge. As you learn more about Subaru and his circumstances, the party discovers someone tried to report the bullying to a teacher, but Subaru denied he was ever being bullied in the first place and got angry when he found out who reported it to the teacher. This is actually something that occurs in real life as well and is especially prominent in a hostile work environment.

* WhamLine: Near the end of Act 2, Sora's discussion with the Vice-President and their chosen partner reveals a rather curious bit about the Vice-President.

* WhamShot: In Act 2, the Vice-President and his chosen partner search the basements of Shin Mikado, looking for [[spoiler:Sora/Yoru's Mist and Ideals]], only to discover a familiar face lying on the ground. [[spoiler:It's the Vice-President himself.]] The confrontation with [[spoiler:Yoru/Sora]] expands on this revelation: [[spoiler:the Vice-President is a "Vanity project" by Yoru, i.e. an ArtificialHuman.]]

** Kokoro is off-handedly mentioned to be [[spoiler:no longer a problem]] during "Flagbearer of Faith". [[spoiler:You learn in other routes that Sora convinced her to seal herself off in the Otherworld, thus removing her influence and Mist from the academy at the cost of forever being isolated.]]
** In Shinya and Ryotaro's routes, Nozomi is never mentioned and is implied to have sequestered herself inside the Student Council room, no doubt because of her feelings of worthlessness and [[spoiler:the WhamEpisode that was the Pactbearer of Greed arc and Chiyo's death in "Intermission: Dusk"]].